http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Written by Jane Makoni
Saturday, 28 May 2011
13:26
Zanu (PF) officials receives multiple plots for little or no
payment
MARONDERA - Marondera Municipality lost thousands of US dollars
in revenue
to Zanu (PF) officials and party supporters who benefitted from
free
residential and commercial stands sold by the Zanu (PF) local authority
in1998-1999, a shocking MDC-T council land audit has revealed.
The
audit, expected to be made public at a full council meeting next month,
was
leaked to The Zimbabwean by sources within council management.
“The land
audit team found that in some cases council land was given for
free. No
without was ever done to council, particularly land allocated
in1998-1999.
There are no records showing proof of payment,” says the
document.
The audit reveals that in a number of cases, stands
allocated were only
partially paid for in the worthless Zimbabwean dollar.
Council has no proof
that the following people paid for stands allocated to
them: John Tazviona
stand number 2817, Felix Mahwindo Jeche, J.L. Chidhakwa,
K. Kundiona stand
number 2849, Albert Shiriyapenga, Dongo Sawmill (52
Rufaro), NOC-ZIM (Lot
144), Zenda Fundikai (Lot 100), Lot 102, Chawafambira
(Lot 101), P. Matiza
(Lot 104). Owners of the following stands paid part
payment in Zimbabwe
dollar and have not settled the balance, now expected in
US dollars: Stands
2814, 7946, 10138, 2767, 2774, 2769, 2770, 2768, 2858,
2101, 2726, 2822,
2224, 2347, 2825, 2848, 2829 and 2830, 2710, 135, 2822,
2825, 2777, 1691 and
1692. Those who paid nothing for allocated stands were
Zanu (PF) activists.
The audit report continues: “Zanu (PF) officials
such as Cleopas Kundiona
and former mayor, Ralph Chimanikire, benefited from
deliberate
irregularities in the allocation of land. Council residential
policy clearly
states that one must not own multiple stands in the same
residential zone,
but Chimanikire was allocated various stands in Paradise
Park, Ruzawe Park
and Winston Park. Kundiona owns a commercial stand which
is being developed
but his wife was also allocated an industrial stand,
which is not yet
developed.
“The absence of a policy has resulted in
unjustifiable allocation of extra
pieces of land. For example, a client
applies for 3.5 hectares of land and
council gratuitously allocates 11,5
hectares.
“Some people were also allocated land despite not being on the
council
waiting list. The trend benefited those connected to council
employees.
There was also double allocation of stands like in the case of
Chidhakwa and
Salware who were allocated stand number 135. The Zimbabwe
Republic Police
and Herentals Group of Colleges were also allocated the same
stand in the
commercial area.
“Council land was also being allocated
despite prominent obstacles such as
the main sewer line in Cherutombo,
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
power-lines in Rujeko and graves in
Lower Paradise.
“The following stands were dangerously allocated at ZESA
power-lines in
Rujeko: Stands number 4257, 4258, 4259 and 1225 while the
following are at
Lower Paradise Graves, 2525, 2524, 2523,2522, 2521 and
2527. Others were
allocated over the Cherutombo main sewer line.
“Against
council policy stipulating that a stand should be developed within
two years
after being purchased, the following stands were not repossessed
despite not
being developed 10 years down the line: Stand numbers 2287,
3058, 2221,
3060, 2190, 2196, 2209, 2217, 2252, 2346 and 2219. Council
should, according
to its land policy, repossess hundreds other undeveloped
stands.” – For
further revelations do not miss The Zimbabwean on Thursday
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Mxolisi Ncube
Saturday,
28 May 2011 13:35
JOHANNESBURG - An international human rights expert has
called on the United
Nations Security Council to act on continuing human
rights abuses in
Zimbabwe before the situation degenerates into a civil
war.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) United Nations Director, Philippe Bollopion,
said
in an interview with The Zimbabwean here on Friday that the Security
Council
should not only act only when a civil war breaks out in a country,
but
ensure that human rights situations are addressed before they
worsen.
“We believe that human rights violations in Zimbabwe are so
widespread and
pervasive that they deserve the Council’s intervention,” said
Bollopion, the
UN point man for the international human rights
watchdog.
“The UN should not wait until there are two armed groups facing
each other,
but use preventive diplomacy to prevent this. When they
eventually decide to
act, it might already be too late. We believe that the
human rights abuses
that are happening in Zimbabwe and Burma are deeply
entrenched and might
degenerate into something worse, like massive
displacements or civil war.
The UNSC has a big role to play in stopping
that.”
Bollopion also challenged neighbouring South Africa, which is not only
the
SADC-appointed mediator in Zimbabwe, but also occupies a temporary seat
in
the UNSC, to speak up against the human rights abuses and suppression of
personal freedoms in Zimbabwe by Zanu (PF).
SA must be
brave
“South Africa should be very vocal in denouncing abuses in Zimbabwe.
It’s
inconsistency on such issues is not good. More bravery on the part of
South
Africa, which surpassed expectations when it voted in favour of the
UNSC
resolution 1970 on Libya, will guarantee the country a permanent seat
in the
UN,” added Bollopion.
“South Africa is a much respected voice when
it comes to issues to do with
Africa because of its economic clout and its
own human rights record. Butt
it should extend that to a more consistent
stance when it comes to defending
human rights abuses outside its borders.”
http://www.timeslive.co.za
Community court's rights watch body slams
move
May 28, 2011 4:56 PM | By HARARE CORRESPONDENT
There are fears
that the suspension of the SADC tribunal, at the behest of
President Robert
Mugabe and his cabal, will have serious implications for
human rights in
southern Africa.
Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders
meeting last week for
an extraordinary summit resolved to suspend the
regional court for a year to
"allow for its reconstitution", after Mugabe
complained the tribunal was
passing judgments that violated Zimbabwe's
constitution.
The tribunal has in the past passed landmark judgments to
reverse Mugabe's
controversial land reforms, a move which has angered the
president and his
Zanu-PF party.
SADC Tribunal Rights Watch said it
was deeply shocked at the decision taken
at the SADC summit in Namibia on
May 20 to dissolve the internationally
respected human rights court, the
SADC tribunal, for a year.
"This is in flagrant disregard of the findings
of the independent review
commissioned by the SADC heads of state, which
confirmed that the tribunal
had the legal authority to deal with individual
human rights petitions and
that its rulings should be binding over member
states," its said.
"Furthermore, the consultants, WTI Advisors Ltd,
Geneva, an affiliate of the
World Trade Institute, reported that the
tribunal was properly established
and that its protocol entered into force
in accordance with international
law," SADC Tribunal Rights Watch
said.
"Instead of upholding the findings, the extraordinary summit took
the
decision to dissolve the tribunal. This deals a devastating blow to the
rule
of law in the region, because it denies individual people access to
justice
when they have no legal recourse in their own countries," it
said.
Zimbabwe's state media and Zanu-PF spin doctors in Harare have
trumpeted the
suspension as a big victory for Mugabe.
The summit's
decisions were:
�Not to reappoint tribunal judges whose terms expired on
August 31 last
year.
�The ministers of justice and attorneys general
will be mandated to initiate
a process aimed at amending the relevant SADC
legal instruments, and would
only be required to submit their final report
to the summit scheduled for
August next year.
�The tribunal should
not take on any new cases or have hearings of any cases
until the SADC
protocol on the tribunal has been reviewed and approved by
the SADC heads of
state at the 2012 summit.
As a result of the suspension, the urgent case
lodged in March this year by
commercial farmers Mike Campbell - who passed
away in April at age 78 as a
result of injuries sustained during his
abduction and torture in 2008 - and
Luke Tembani,74, will not be heard by
the SADC tribunal.
Their application asks for an order that ensures "the
(SADC) tribunal
continues to function in all respects as established by
Article 16 of the
treaty."
It also takes to task the SADC heads of
state for not abiding by the
protection treaty, signed on behalf of the
people of the SADC in 1992.
"The suspension of this region's highest
court serves no purpose but to
allow corruption, the abuse of power and also
the erosion of human rights in
southern Africa to become
entrenched."
As the region celebrated Africa Day this week, the SADC
Tribunal Rights
Watch calledon the southern regions community to initiate an
urgent,
wide-reaching consultation among civil society groups, legal experts
and
individuals to resolve this crisis and enable the members to continue
seeking legitimate legal redress at a regional level.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
28/05/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
A FORMER Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) brute recently
granted
asylum in Britain is now facing a police investigation.
Phillip
Machemedze, 47, may have obtained work at a residential care home by
deception, his former employers said.
Asylum seekers are generally
not allowed to work while their claims are
being decided, but they are
allowed to apply for permission to work if they
have waited for more than a
year for an initial decision on their asylum
claim.
Police are
investigating if Machemedze had permission to work, but his
former employers
fear he may have used forged Home Office letters.
The Bristol-based
Milestones Trust said it terminated Machemedze’s
employment early this week
after reading media reports of what a judge
described as “savage acts of
brutality” committed in the service of
President Robert Mugabe’s brutal
regime.
A spokesman for the Trust said: “We informed the police
immediately... and
took immediate action to prevent his return to
work.
“We are concerned that he appeared to have valid documentation from the
Home
Office allowing him to reside and work in the UK.
"The safety
and security of our service users and staff is our primary
concern at this
time. We have taken the necessary steps to reassure and
support everybody at
the home.
"The nature of the crimes as reported are wholly abhorrent and
clearly
completely incompatible with working in the social care sector.
These
reports have come as an enormous shock to everybody at the
trust.”
Machemedze - who admitted smashing the jaw of an MDC supporter
and pulling
out his teeth with pliers - worked as a support worker for the
charity which
supports people with dementia, learning disabilities and
mental health
needs.
The HIV-positive former bodyguard to the late
cabinet minister Enos
Chikowore, arrived in Britain in 2000 after quitting
the CIO where he worked
for four years.
Machemedze, who lives in
Barton Hill, Bristol, with his wife, Febbie,
applied for asylum in 2008
after overstaying his visitor's visa. The Home
Office rejected his and his
wife’s asylum claims after accusing him of
committing “crimes against
humanity”.
But the couple won a right to stay in Britain on May 4 this
month when an
immigration judge said Machemedze would be killed by his
former CIO
colleagues if deported for “spilling the beans” about their
operations.
The Home Office says it is seeking permission from the
tribunal to appeal
the decision. A judge refused them permission to appeal
on May 18, but they
can still appeal if they can show the judge made an
"arguable error of law".
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by JOHN CHIMUNHU
Thursday, 26 May 2011
17:19
HARARE - Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Executive Director Irene
Petras
has dismissed claims by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation as
'propagandist lies'. The Zanu (PF)-controlled ZBC-TV said that she and other
civil rights campaigners were paid by the MDC to stage last week's protests
at the SADC summit in Windhoek. ‘It is unfortunate that so-called
journalists choose to propagate such falsehoods, which some have rightly
described as outright propagandist lies,’ Petras told The
Zimbabwean.
ZBC’s Reuben Barwe reported on Monday that the protesters who
turned up in
Namibia had been paid by MDC to disrupt the conference. The
heavily
opinionated so-called news report made personal attacks on Petras.
According
to an earlier ZLHR statement, Petras was among a group of four
pro-democracy
activists who were targeted by heavily armed Namibian police
and handed over
to Zimbabwean state security agents at the summit. The
statement said the
Central Intelligence Organisation agents were very
hostile, demanding
personal details of Petras and other activists, including
their residential
addresses in Zimbabwe.
Petras said the conduct of ZBC
strengthened calls for reform of the public
broadcaster, which is virtually
run by Zanu (PF) in violation of the Global
Political Agreement. Abuse of
ZBC by Zanu (PF) and refusal by Mugabe to have
private broadcasters licensed
are among the major issues hindering progress
on full implementation of the
GPA. ZBC ignored last week's appeals by Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's
spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka for fair coverage
of all political parties in
the country.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Lovejoy Sakala
Saturday,
28 May 2011 00:00
NYANGA NORTH - Irate villagers here are up in arms with
Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation for demanding licence fees but failing to
transmit
a reliable signal in the area.
Last week, ZBC dispatched its
officers to collect listener’s and viewer’s
license in the area but
villagers resisted saying they last accessed ZBC
programming long
ago.
“We wonder why they want us to pay licence when it actual fact we don’t
receive any ZBC signal transmission. We will not pay. They can do whatever
they want. We are poor and they should stop violating our rights,”
complained Lloyd Mudiwa of Kazozo Nyanga. Manuel Maruta weighed in saying
they had not been receiving ZBC signal for a long time and surprisingly the
broadcaster was demanding fees which he said was `exorbitant`.
“We are
very isolated and we wonder whether we are Zimbabweans. We watch
foreign
programming from Mozambique and Voice of America (VOA).Important
information
about our country remains elusive. $50 is too much for such a
shoddy job,”
said Maruta, who was listening to studio 7 from America. With
critical
national processes such as the ongoing constitution-making process,
Kazozo
community remains outdated and out of touch with reality on the
ground.
Residents in Penhalonga interviewed by this paper said they would
not pay up
if the national broadcaster does not improve its pathetic
programming.“They
can take us to court but we will not pay. We cannot
bankroll activities of
one political party in the inclusive government. The
local content is not
educative or informative in anyway,” said Misheck
Runhanya of Penhalonga.
Most residents in urban areas are now subscribing to
Multi Choice TV and
free to air decoders to run away from propaganda being
churned by national
broadcaster.
http://www.radiovop.com/
5 hours 19 minutes ago
JOHANNESBURG,
May 28, 2011- Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party
has appointed
Nelson Chamisa to take charge of all the party’s external
structures and
dissolved provincial structures.
The restructuring of the party’s
external branches follows complaints of
corruption, mismanagement of the
party’s funds, money laundering and vote
rigging.
The move has not gone
down well with some party heavyweights who accuse
Tsvangirai of favouritism
and of sidelining other regions.Previously the
external structures were the
responsibility of chairman, Lovemore Moyo who,
according to some insiders,
is no longer popular in some provinces.
Moyo is being seen by others in
the party as ‘ too soft’ and lacking an
aggressive attitude that is required
to reign in party renegades.But some in
the MDC-T say Moyo is now a very
senior party leader who should not be
running around disciplining wayward
officials and renegades.
In the United Kingdom some members welcomed the new
development especially
those who were against Moyo in the first place.The
MDC-T structures overseas
have also been rocked by allegations of tribalism
and corruption forcing
some people from other provinces to resign and join
parties such as Zapu and
MDC led by Welshman Ncube.
http://www.voanews.com/
Former
finance minister Simba Makoni, head of an opposition party, Mavambo
Kusile
Dawn, said reintroduction of the Zimbabwe dollar would violate the
2008
Global Political Agreement for power sharing
Chris Gande | Washington 27
May 2011
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono has again
called for a
relaunch of the Zimbabwean dollar, removed from circulation in
early 2009
after losing all value due to a near-historic wave of
hyperinflation stoked,
say critics, by Gono's profligate
policies.
Since then the country has run on a monetary regimen of mixed
hard
currencies, chiefly the US dollar and South African rand. The system
quickly
restored price stability.
Today Zimbabwean dollar notes in
denominations of up to US$100 billion
circulate only as collectibles or mere
objects of curiosity offered for sale
on the Internet.
Gono told the
state-controlled Herald newspaper that Zimbabwe could not
continue using the
US dollar because it was foreign cash. He said Zimbabwe
should bring back
its own dollar and back it with gold reserves to avoid a
second
hyperinflationary wave.
“Now that Zimbabwe is awash with gold the nation
should reintroduce the
Zimbabwe dollar but this time backed by gold,” Gono
told the Herald.
President Robert Mugabe has also urged revival of the
national currency on a
number of occasions, but Finance Minister Tendai Biti
has just as often
voiced opposition to the proposition.
Former
finance minister Simba Makoni, head of an opposition party, Mavambo
Kusile
Dawn, told VOA Studio 7 reporter Chris Gande that reintroduction of
the
Zimbabwe dollar would in addition violate the 2008 Global Political
Agreement for power sharing.
http://www.radiovop.com/
5 hours 18 minutes
ago
BULAWAYO, May 28, 2011- The Zimbabwe African People’s Union
(Zapu) led by
former Zipra intelligence chief, Dumiso Dabengwa has become
the second
political party to rule out any alliance with other parties in
the next
general election expected sometime next year.
Speaking at a
public meeting organized by the pro-MDC-T Bulawayo Agenda on
Zimbabwe
election roadmap on Friday Zapu's national secretary for legal and
special
affairs, Steven Nkiwane said his party was betrayed when it signed
a unity
deal with Zanu (PF) in 1987 and no longer trust coalitions.
“We were
betrayed before, when we entered into unity with Zanu (PF) and we
don’t want
a repeat of that. We will not enter into partnership with any
party. We are
a national party which will go to next elections single
handedly to fight
Mugabe and we are assured of victory,” said Nkiwane.
Nkiwane also said Zapu
was ready for elections but won’t enter into
elections where the playing
field favoured Zanu (PF).Addressing the same
meeting the smaller MDC
spokesperson Nhlanhla Dube said Zanu (PF) is
demanding early elections so
that they can brutalise their members.
“There want elections as soon as
possible so that they can start brutalizing
our members. We can’t have such
kind of elections,” said Dube.Zanu (PF) is
pushing calls for elections this
year with or without a new constitution to
undo the unity government.
However, the two MDCs refused calls for fresh
elections, saying it favours
election roadmaps to guarantee a free and fair
poll.
Negotiators from the
three parties in unity government are currently working
on the election
roadmap that would usher in a new democratic dispensation in
the country and
which would be discussed during a SADC extraordinary summit
on the Zimbabwe
crisis to be held in South Africa next month.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/
Zanu-PF's top brass shocked by declaration
May 28, 2011 4:59
PM | By ZOLI MANGENA
President Robert Mugabe, plagued by poor health
which he denies, has plunged
his deeply divided Zanu-PF further into crisis
after his declaration that he
would not leave, because the party would
disintegrate if he quit.
Extensive interviews by the Sunday Times with
senior Zanu-PF officials
revealed there was renewed anger at Mugabe last
week for announcing his
determination to cling to power. The situation was
made worse by
controversial remarks made by a senior Zimbabwe National Army
(ZNA)
commander who said Mugabe must remain in office until he
dies.
In an interview with state media last week, Mugabe said he was not
going to
retire because Zanu-PF was in crisis and would
collapse.
"Well, well, well. The party will find someone but you don't
leave the party
amid problems and in a crisis such as we have. You've got to
get the party
out of the crisis and then you can retire," he
said.
"And also, the party needs me and we should not create weak points
within
the party. We must remain solid and in full gear. Once you have
change, and
if we had it now for example, the new man, or new woman - that
might destroy
the party for a while as it goes through transition. Any new
leader needs
time to consolidate, so we don't want to take risks at all,"
Mugabe said.
However, senior Zanu-PF politburo members said Mugabe's
remarks were
"shocking" and "divisive" and the statements would throw the
party deeper
into turmoil.
"The president's statements came as a
shock to us even though we know he
does not intend to retire, because they
are divisive," a senior politburo
member said. "This is going to worsen
factionalism and divisions because his
continued stay and failure to deal
with the succession issue has created all
these problems."
Members of
the two Zanu-PF factions, led by retired army commander Solomon
Mujuru and
Emmerson Mnangagwa, were in rare agreement that Mugabe's remarks
would cause
more internal strife.
"After reading that interview, we had a meeting
with senior members of our
group and everybody agreed that the president's
remarks were troublesome and
disruptive because they encourage infighting.
When people don't know when a
leader is going they will say let's keep
ourselves organised and ready
because in politics anything can happen any
time," said a senior member of
the Mujuru faction. "So what we are going to
be doing is to keep lobbying to
put on pressure behind the scenes and to
gain a strategic position in this
race."
A top member of the
Mnangagwa faction said Mugabe's remarks condemned the
party to "perpetual
infighting". "These statements don't unite the party.
Some think by saying
he is not going that will keep the party united but it
achieves exactly the
opposite. It fuels internal power struggles and
instability."
However, another party official said Mugabe was trying
to keep warring
factions at bay by publicly saying he is going nowhere. A
close Mugabe
loyalist, Didymus Mutasa, recently publicly admitted infighting
in the party
and told supporters of the two factions to stop the bickering
and rally
behind Mugabe. Mugabe also admitted the divisions last
week.
Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo was unavailable for
comment.
On Friday ZNA commander Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba
said Mugabe
must remain in office for life and elections must be held this
year to
ensure "political stability". He said the army wanted Mugabe to be
president-for-life because he could not be replaced.
The combative
army commander said senior military officers would never
salute Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai even if he won the election.
http://www.radiovop.com/
5 hours 30 minutes
ago
Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font
HARARE, May 28, 2011-
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai Friday said reckless
utterances by the
army’s top brass and their blind loyalty to President
Robert Mugabe possed a
serious threat to the security of the country.
Tsvangirai was speaking at
the launch of the Panel of Zimbabwe Elders
Fridaywhen he said reckless
statements by the security chiefs and senior
members of the army were a
serious cause for concern.The MDC-T leader was
also responding to statements
by Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba who
said Mugabe should rule
Zimbabwe until he dies.
Brigadier Nyikayaramba also said he and other army’s
top brass will never
salute Tsvangirai.The Panel of Elders is a group of
eminent Zimbabweans from
different backgrounds who have come together to
work towards a violence-free
Zimbabwe by engaging stakeholders.
Its
interim leader is Professor Gordon Chavunduka. Others on the panel
include
Professor Phenias Makhurane, Chief Mtekedza from Chivhu, Chief
Ndanga
(Masvingo), Father Fidelis Mukonori, Bishop Sebastian Bakare, Ruth
Mpisaunga
(consultant), Margaret Rukuni, former Cabinet minister Fay Chung,
Professor
Rudo Gaidzanwa and Luke Chipunza.
“Statements by service chiefs that they
will not respect the expression of
the people’s will, as well as statements
in the Press today in which a
senior army officer is trying to determine the
date of the election, only
serve to confirm the uniqueness of our situation
and the importance of
vaccinating State organs from acting like political
entities.
“Unnecessary election talk leads to dysfunctionality and
polarity in the
country. It polarises Cabinet, Parliament and the security
sector and leads
to unilateral actions and selective application of the
law.” said the MDC-T
leader.
“We all want a new era in this country;
where knives, machetes, knobkerries,
guns and booted feet as instruments of
violence and repression are no longer
fashionable,” he
said.
Tsvangirai said he was surprised President Mugabe was absent from
the
Zimbabwe Elders promoting peace and urged him to join the group as he
qualified.
“I questioned myself what the age limit in this panel is,”
he said. “I see
there is someone who is conspicuous by his absence. It’s
none other than
President Mugabe. It is a serious omission and you should
extend an
invitation to him,” Tsvangirai said.
Tsvangirai warned that
reckless election talk would slide the country back
to the 2008 violence and
chaos.
“As a country, we have been forced to walk the painful road of
violence and
hatred and we are not prepared to walk it again. We have lost
relatives,
houses and property. We have State agents actively engaging in
shameful acts
of violence and unbridled violation of the people’s rights and
freedoms,” he
said.
“But we refuse to be cowed and to be distracted from
the urgent national
assignment of fighting for democratic change in
Zimbabwe.Our current
situation is being compounded by the war psychosis the
constant reference to
Chimurenga and the war language associated with it
puts the country into an
unnecessary war mode,” he said.
http://www.voanews.com
Affirmative
Action Group Secretary General Tafadzwa Musarara said that in
addition to
talking up Zimbabwean investment opportunities, he wants to
enlighten
Zimbabweans in USA about 'crippling' Western sanctions
Gibbs Dube |
Washington 27 May 2011
The controversial initiative by the Zimbabwean
government to take a
controlling stake in foreign-owned enterprises
including in the key mining
sector will be aired at this year's edition of
ZimExpo, a business
exposition that opened Friday in Cincinnati.
A
delegation from the Zimbabwean-based Affirmative Action Group, a leading
proponent of the indigenization and black empowerment plan, was to make a
presentation about the initiative to the Zimbabwean expatriates attending
the three-day event.
The schedule also includes a soccer tournament
on Saturday and a beauty
pageant on Sunday in which the next Miss Zimbabwe
USA 2011 will be selected.
ZimExpo Communications Director Chipo Mnkandla
said the top items on the
agenda will be investment opportunities in
Zimbabwe and the so-called
targeted sanctions imposed on President Robert
Mugabe and about 200 other
officials of his ZANU-PF party.
Mnkandla
said there is strong interest in the indigenization program which
ZANU-PF
and its allies have been rolling out aggressively much like land
reform in
the last decade. But critics say the confiscation of controlling
equity
stakes in mining companies and other enterprises will only further
discourage foreign direct investment.
Mnkandla said most Zimbabweans
in the diaspora want details on
indigenization "so they can think about
investment opportunities back home."
Affirmative Action Group Secretary
General Tafadzwa Musarara said that in
addition to talking up Zimbabwean
investment opportunities, he wants to
enlighten Zimbabweans in USA about
what he says are the "crippling" effects
of targeted sanctions.
US
officials and most independent observers say the Zimbabwean economy
crashed
in the last decade mainly as a consequence of the seizure of
white-owned
commercial farms, devastating the key agricultural sector and
causing
widespread hunger.
The European Union has also imposed travel and
financial restrictions on Mr.
Mugabe and his inner circle, as have
Australia, New Zealand and other
countries.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by John Chimunhu
Saturday, 28 May 2011
12:06
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe's divisive influence on the world
stage has
claimed another victim: the Kimberly Process Diamond
Certification
Scheme (KP).
According to The Diplomatic Courier, which
monitors diplomatic
relations worldwide, the question of Zimbabwe's
controversial diamond
production in the disputed Marange fields in the
eastern Manicaland
province had 'stalled' the KP.
The organisation warned
that a major row was now certain as Zimbabwe
prepares to take over the KP
chairmanship from the Democratic Republic
of Congo, whose recent unilateral
authorisation of Marange diamond
sales plunged the organisation into
turmoil.
South Africa, a major producer, boycotted a recent KP working
group
meeting in Dubai in solidarity with Zimbabwe. The meeting had
been
called by the European Union.
Now, according to the Courier, another
bruising fight is looming as
the United States will almost certainly oppose
Zimbabwe's ascension.
"There remains much uncertainty as to whether the
United States will
allow Zimbabwe to take up the next chair of the KPCS," the
Courier's
contributing editor, Michelle Acuto commented last week in a
report
entitled Diamonds:Still a bloody affair.
"In short, the Process’
internal cracks are looming large on its
future, while Zimbabwean
undocumented diamonds continue to trickle
into the global market via third
parties such as Mozambique. The
titles from two recent Global Witness reports
sum up this progressive
derailing, calling on the ‘return of the blood
diamond’ via Zimbabwe,
and pointing at the ‘lessons unlearned’ on the
international trade in
minerals."
The report said the recent events had
shown that the KP's internal
mechanisms "continue to be loose, easily
circumvented, and at times
contrasting, while internal squabbles in the
Kimberly scheme and
continuing cross-border smuggling maintains a substantial
flow of
conflict roughs in the global market. The diamond trade remains,
at
the end of the day, a bloody affair with little attention on the
world
stage."
Mugabe has repeatedly blackmailed African countries that
sought to
oppose him in international bodies such as KP, branding them
puppets
of the West. After the KP's current DRC chair Mathieu Yamba
allowed
Zimbabwe to sell its 'blood diamonds', obtained amid much violence
in
which hiundreds of Marange residents and illegal miners were
murdered
in horrific army airstrikes, the European Union called for
an
emergency session of the KP in Dubai. However, SA was armtwisted
by
Harare and forced to pull out of the meeting, stating that it would
be
compelled to enforce decisions made in its absence.
This played into
the hands of Zimbabwe, which immediately offloaded
hundreds of millions
dollars from it's stockpile, mined in
questionable circumstances by the
Chinese firm Anjin, which was
granted a licence last year amid a veil of
secrecy.
However, the country's credibility problems are far from over.
Mines
minister Obert Mpofu acknowledged as much last week when he took
the
country's military chiefs, including defence minister
Emmerson
Mnangagwa and defence forces commander Constantine Chiwenga on a
tour
the Anjin facility at Marange. The presence of the army in Marange
is
one of the contentious issues dogging the KP amid reports that
soldiers
are looting and smuggling diamonds through neighbouring
Mozambique.
Mugabe
has used his vast knowledge of international relations to
divide most
organisations in which Zimbabwe is a member. He pulled
Zimbabwe out of the
Commonwealth after ordering the invasion of
white-owned farms, caused major
divisions among world powers in the
United Nations Security Council when he
rigged the 2008 elections,
threw the African Union and SADC into unending
conflicts and has now
effectively caused major rifts in the
KP.
Organisations such as the Diamond Development Initiative
and
Responsible Jewelry Council are calling for implementation of a
system
known as 'Forevermark', where every individual gemstone mined
will
bear a special mark of origin.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Ngoni Chanakira
Saturday, 28 May 2011
13:01
.. but Libyan govt owns 14%
HARARE - CBZ Holdings Limited says
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi definitely does
not have any shareholding in the
government-controlled financial
institution. (Pictured: Gadaffi)
"Gadaffi
does not have any shareholding in us (CBZ)," said the institution's
Chief
Financial Officer (CFO) in Harare.
He was responding to a question after
presenting a report of the commercial
institution's strategy for
international investors.
CBZ Holdings is currently Zimbabwe's largest banking
group with interests in
commercial banking, property, insurance and
communications. It is currently
undertaking a $300 million property spruce
up in Harare's Central Business
district.
It has the nation's largest
depositor base of more than $600 million, an
advances book of $444,6
million, controlling 22 percent of total system
assets, 28 percent of
deposits and 31 percent of advances in Zimbabwe today.
Eye-brows have,
however, been raised by the market because after
government's control of
16,1 percent of the firm at $110 million, the second
highest shareholder is
Libyan Foreign Bank (NNR) with a 14,1 percent stake
worth $96,6 million on
the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
CBZ Holdings has a market capitalisation of
$123,1 million on the bourse.
Its share price currently stands at
$0,18.
Other CBZ shareholders are Africa Investments Sub 2 Limited with 13,5
percent worth $92,6 million, National Social Security Authority, CBZ
Holdings Limited (8,1 percent), Stanbic Nominees NNR Bank (3,2 percent),
Remo Nominees (Private) Limited (3,2 percent), Datvest Nominees (Private)
Limited (2,7 percent), Stanbic Nominees (Private) Limited (2 percent) and
Bethel Nominees Number Two with a 2 percent stake.
"The CBZ should be
very worried about developments in Libya," said an
industry source. "The
Libyan Government has a huge stake in CBZ Holdings
Limited and anything that
goes wrong in that country will definitely affect
them - despite the fact
that they are denying it."
The CBZ CFO refused to inform interested investors
how much cash government
big wigs, especially from the former ruling party
Zanu (PF)S, owed the
institution.
He said CBZ was concentrating on
diversifying and improving its fee income
streams.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Edward Jones Saturday 28 May
2011
VICTORIA FALLS – Zimbabwe’s gold output could hit 20 tonnes
in the short to
medium term if the sector gets funding and electricity
supplies improve,
outgoing Chamber of Mines president Victor Gapare said
yesterday.
Gapare said gold production would hit between 12 and 15 tonnes
this year
from 9.6 tonnes last year as the mining industry slowly recovers
from a
decade of decline.
“We have capacity to increase production to
20 tonnes, which would be 60
percent of our capacity,” Gapare told the
annual general meeting of the
mining chamber,” Gapare said.
“We
expect the firm prices of gold to remain. With this positive outlook for
gold, it is high time we put in place policies that will allow us to ride
the crest of this positive trend."
Zimbabwe’s mining sector
contributes 7 percent to GDP and accounts for about
half the country’s
export earnings.
Heinz Pley, a managing director at Morgan Stanley’s
investment banking
division told the meeting yesterday that Zimbabwe had the
capacity to double
its GDP growth but said this was possible only if Harare
ensures a stable
political environment and investors were guaranteed
security of their
investment.
Zimbabwe has scared foreign investors
with its plans to force mining
companies to sell at least 51 percent shares
to local Zimbabweans.
Delegates at the meeting questioned where the
government would get the money
to buy the shares.
“GDP could grow
double digit if there was a stable political environment in
Zimbabwe (and)
the most important thing is security of tenure. If those
things are there,
this economy will grow,” Pley said.
Economic analysts say Zimbabwe, which
has been impoverished by a decade of
economic collapse, does not have the
money to buy controlling shareholding
in mines.
The country has the
second largest reserves of platinum and large deposits
of gold, ferrochrome,
chrome and diamonds.
The empowerment drive is likely to discourage
foreign investment and will
hit foreign miners in the country including
AngloPlat and Impala Platinum,
the world's largest and second largest
platinum producers, and Rio Tinto,
which runs a diamond mine in the
country.
Rio Tinto’s Zimbabwe arm, Rio Zim, this week reported that a
foreign
investor it did not name who had shown keen interest to pump money
into the
gold mining firm withdrew at the eleventh hour because of concerns
over the
controversial plan to transfer control of the mining sector to
local blacks.
The government has sought to allay fears that it would not
expropriate mines
but investors are still concerned.
“This is not
nationalisation, we are looking at broad based empowerment,”
Tapiwa
Mashakada, Minister of Economic Planning said.
Analysts say the
government should take the route of increasing taxes for
the mining sector
as a different route to empowerment and use the money to
build
infrastructure like roads, hospitals and electricity generating
plants.
The indigenisation programme has divided the fragile unity
government formed
two years ago by President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Mugabe, whose previous government used
its majority in Parliament in 2007 to
ram through the indigenisation law,
says the empowerment programme is
necessary to ensure blacks benefit from
the country’s lucrative mineral
resources.
But Tsvangirai, who says
he is for genuine indigenisation of the economy
that benefits ordinary
Zimbabweans, has castigated the empowerment drive as
“looting by a greedy
elite”. -- ZimOnline
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Staff Writer
Saturday, 28 May 2011
10:45
HARARE - In yet another clear anti-Daily News move by the
government,
President Robert Mugabe’s security officials yesterday barred
the popular
daily from covering a police pass-out parade at Morris Depot in
Harare where
the Zanu PF leader was guest of honour.
While
journalists from other media houses were allowed to cover the parade,
Mugabe’s security details chased away the Daily News’ reporter assigned to
cover the routine event – arguing ridiculously that they were taking this
uncalled for measure because the newspaper was out to tarnish the image of
the long-ruling octogenarian.
A member of Mugabe’s security team,
presumed to be a Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) agent, fished out
the Daily News reporter who was with
other journalists and said: “You
cannot cover this event, you were not
invited. After all your stories and
cartoons are damaging the President. Go
away now. This is our
area”.
The shell-shocked journalist was also told in no uncertain terms
that the
Daily News was not allowed to cover Mugabe. He was promptly, and
in full
public view, escorted out of Morris Depot by the spooks, who
ominously took
details of the journalist’s residential address and national
identity
number.
They also took the address of the Daily News
offices, as well as its
landline numbers.
Bizarrely too, the writer
was also asked to provide details of his rural
home, the district, the
headman and the traditional chief of the area where
he comes
from.
The angry and pushy CIO operatives, who clearly were acting under
official
instruction, flatly refused to explain why they wanted the
reporter’s
personal and other details.
Presidential spokesman George
Charamba said predictably: "I do not over-ride
the decision of the police or
the security. The fact that the president was
at a security zone means that
I cannot override the decisions of the
security.
“That is why
security institutions have their public relations department.
At the police
there are the likes of Wayne Bvudzijena who deals with those
matters".
The reporter was initially blocked at one of the security
check points after
a security detail said the paper was not on the list of
media houses that
were invited.
On the list was the state-owned
Herald, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation and the state news agency, New
Ziana, as well as and some
independent newspapers.
Upon being told
this, the reporter then sought help from an official in the
Ministry of
Information, who explained to the security details at the
entrance that the
reporter had a right to cover the event as he was properly
accredited.
The reporter was then allowed in temporarily, before
security details in
plain clothes and ordered him out. He was escorted out
by a plain clothes
security official and a uniformed police
officer.
Calls and text messages to police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena
for
assistance went unanswered.
Commenting on the obtuse development,
the Daily News Managing Editor Stanley
Gama said this was another “sad but
typical day in the life our reporters”.
“So shaken is our reporter, who
does not even want us to publish due to
fear, that he is even scared of
going home. Who would blame our reporter for
this? The threat is
real.
“We assume that the fact that these so-called intelligence officers
have
taken all our reporter’s personal details they do not mean well – and
intend
to follow him to his residence. Let it be recorded here that we will
hold
them liable should anything happen to our reporter,” he
said.
Gama added that the Daily News would, however, continue telling it
like it
is despite “these grotesque and despicable acts of intimidation and
thuggery”.
“It is clear that we are being targeted because we are
writing the truth
about the situation in the country. We will seek an
audience with the
President’s office about this chilling incident,” he said.
http://www.timeslive.co.za
May 28, 2011 5:01 PM | By SETUMO STONE
A
documentary on the violent 2008 presidential elections, The Axe and The
Tree
, bears witness to the trauma experienced by Zimbabweans.
The film
premiered on Tuesday at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton,
Johannesburg, attended by director, Rumbi Katedza, and activist, Elinor
Sisulu.
Verne Harris, of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said the
decision to host
the screening was motivated by "a call for justice" and
that "Zimbabwe looms
very large in Mandela's own memory".
"What
happened in Zimbabwe in 2008 was invisible and it's important that
more and
more people are available to talk so that a situation like that
does not
happen again," said Katedza.
The film moves between the happy and sad
memories shared by the participants
and their families, documenting their
trauma, vulnerability and glimpses of
hope. In one scene a couple describes
how they met and fell in love. "I
liked the way he spoke. He was full of
jokes and that is what I admired
about him," said the shy-looking wife with
a smile.
"They seem to be running dry these days. But he has not lost his
sense of
humour," she said.
Next she described how she was "raped by
a gang of youths who attacked her
family's house," and kidnapped her and two
children.
Her face transformed from laughter to sadness. "When we got
there they beat
and raped us."
Another elderly woman said she loved
children and that was still in her
blood. "When I arrive at church all the
children shout for me: 'Granny,
Gogo'," she said.
But she broke into
tears when she recalled how she was gang-raped by
children.
"One of
them said: 'Why don't you beat her?' The other one answered: 'No.
Just rape
her and leave her'." The woman said she had since contracted a
disease.
Sisulu said she appreciated that "the film was giving agency
to the people
(of Zimbabwe)".
"South Africans must take note from
Zimbabwe that media freedom is not just
a liberal democratic notion, but a
matter of life and death," said Sisulu,
who also mentioned that she lives in
an "ANC family".
She reminded Katedza of a "personal friend", Jestina
Mukoko, who "had been
abducted for conducting human rights work in
Zimbabwe".
"Prepare for the consequences, and with Zanu-PF there are
always
consequences," Sisulu said.
Howard Varney, of International
Centre of Transitional Justice, said he
hoped the film would be shown all
around the world, but it would not be
screened in Zimbabwe for safety
reasons.
Dear Family and Friends,
Something we have become grudgingly used to in
Zimbabwe is the
knowledge is that in all our cities, towns, villages
and
neighbourhoods are the perpetrators of bloody crimes and brutal
human
rights abuses. Up to three decades after they murdered, raped,
burnt
and tortured, in the name of their political masters, they have
gone
unpunished and continue to walk brazenly amongst us.
Speaking in
Plumtree a few days ago, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
made a dramatic
statement on political violence. He said: “My hands
are very clean and my
conscience is clear. I did not kill anyone
during Gukurahundi. I did not kill
anyone during Operation
Murambatsvina and I did not kill anyone during the
2008 Presidential
elections run-off. I challenge Mugabe to come out in public
and say
the same.”
At the time of writing there has been no response
to the Prime
Minister’s challenge. What there has been, however, is
renewed
attention on a member of the CIO, who continues to live in the
peace
and safety of Wales in the UK. Despite admitting that he had
kidnapped
dozens of MDC activists and, in his own words, done things to
them
that :”are too gruesome to recount,” the 47 year old
Zimbabwean
former spy has been living in asylum in the UK. Phillip
Machemedze
also admitted in a UK court to rubbing salt into the wounds of
a
female MDC member before she was taken to an underground cell,
stripped
and whipped. He admitted electrocuting, slapping, beating and
punching a
white farmer who was suspected of giving money to the MDC.
Despite all of
this a Judge in Newport, South Wales, said that
Machemedze will not be
deported from the UK because his life would be
in danger if he came back to
Zimbabwe. When an attempt to appeal the
ruling was made, a senior immigration
judge said in part: “Whatever
is felt about Philip Machemedze and his
actions, the UK cannot return
him to face death or inhuman or degrading
treatment ….”
“Death or inhuman or degrading treatment” are just words to
a
judge. To the relations and survivors of a massacre in Matabeleand
in
the early 1980’s, they are words describing the slaughter of
twenty
five thousand men, women, children and babies. To those of us
living
here, the judges words are experiences that the vast majority
of
Zimbabweans have encountered again and again in the last decade.
We’ve
seen our friends beaten and detained, our parents and
grandparents destitute
and suicidal; our children out of school and
our professionals crawling under
border fences to survive. We’ve
lost our homes and businesses, put our
children to bed hungry and been
to so many funerals we’ve lost
count.
The UK rulings protecting CIO operative Machemedze are
apparently
because he supplied information about his colleagues. But we are
left
wondering if the Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic
supplies
information about his colleagues will he too be granted asylum
in
Newport, South Wales?
I will be taking a short break for a while
but in the meantime please
keep watching Zimbabwe and supporting the efforts
of the ordinary,
hard working people who make our country great. Until next
time,
thanks for reading, love cathy. 28th May 2011.
Copyright � Cathy
Buckle. www.cathybuckle.com